The United States Air Force (USAF) strategic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Military air force RQ-4A Global Hawk (callsign UAVGH000) flight along the contact line between Ukrainian-controlled and occupied by Russian troops areas in Ukraine.
Tracking over Ukraine at 50,000 Feet… A USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk High Altitude Reconnaissance UAV pic.twitter.com/pdEEJBUNGk
— U.S. Aircraft Spots (@usaircraftspots) February 5, 2017
The USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV made a long reconnaissance flight over the conflict zone in Donbas that lasted for almost 10 hours on Friday,February 3, 2017 .
The surveillance aircraft could observe the territory of the occupied by the Russian Federation territories, including self proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk national republics (DND and LNR), also several times flew up to a distance of at least 100 km to bordering areas of Luhansk region to Voronezh and Rostov regions of Russia.
The USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV took off from air bases in Sicily and entered the airspace of Ukraine from Romania.
Recently reconnaissance flights of the RQ-4A Global Hawk in Donbas took place in autumn 2016. In November 2016 RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV made a reconnaissance flight over the demarcation line near Donetsk and over the borders of the illegally annexed by the Russian Federation Crimea.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV can survey 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain a day and provide reconnaissance for 30 hours at altitudes of up to 18 thousand meters. The RQ-4 is used as a high-altitude platform provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and long-range electro-optica and infrared sensors with long loiter times over target areas.
The strategic unmanned aerial vehicle Global Hawk is operated by the USAF and NASA for covering the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide military operations.
